Lifestyles

Next to being present at his ordination to the ministry when I was a teenager, watching the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates come back from being down 3-1 to win the championship has to be the greatest time we have spent together, but there are so many other good times.

As Fathers’ Day draws near, I’m remembering one of Norman Rockwell’s most popular paintings, “Breaking Home Ties,” the picture of a college-bound farm boy and his father. They sit on the running board of an old truck, the boy expectant and hopeful while the father holds his weathered hat in hand, eyes cast down.

Coco stands only waist-high to a man, but don't let her stature, hunger for attention or big, brown eyes fool you. Jack Adams didn't bring her home to his farm on Colonial Acres Road east of Lenoir because she's cute.

Two years ago, Adams decided to adopt Coco because at night he had been hearing the howling of nearby coyotes. Coco is there to protect Adams' cattle.

Last week I was forced to do one of my least favorite things in life. I absolutely abhor seeing a doctor. I suppose that explains why I haven’t seen one in nearly a decade. But all good things must come to an end, and this time the end came because of a case of sinusitis.

Whether it’s respect for a folk singer or just the similar acoustic sounds found in banjo strings, the bluegrass musicians in this community have discovered a common ground with Irish performer Pat Kelleher, who with his son, Ricky Kelleher, will perform folk songs and contemporary music from Ireland and other English speaking countries in a free concert at the Chapel of Rest in Happy Valley at 7 p.m. on June 26.

This spring has been very dry. Rain over the last two weeks have been spotty. Hopefully you have received some of the moisture to help your landscape and garden. Below are some questions that have been posed to the Caldwell Extension Center.

The main event, a full day of music from noon to after 11 p.m., will be Saturday, June 13, in the back area of the Exela Pharma Sciences property on U.S. 321, which is north of Wal-Mart in Lenoir. Tickets are required.

Every June it seems we begin to hear the perennial advice of people speaking from podiums at commencement addresses. Many of them are well done, and I usually find myself making an advice and quote list too.

Our summertime uninvited guests have begun arriving, and already I’m working on getting rid of them. Don’t think me inhospitable since none of you would want to host these guests. With such company around, a meal may be interrupted as people at the table begin to fight with them. One evening I actually left the table to get a weapon — my fly swatter.

Sociologist James Loewen calls Augustus St. Gauden’s monument to Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the all-black 54th Massachusetts Regiment on Boston Common the defining Civil War monument. In his words, it represents “what a Civil War monument should be.”

Since December I’ve pondered the how’s and why’s of suffering and pain. No one has the answers to those hard questions, but I do know that the awful things in our lives are just that — simply awful — but we make it through by the grace of God. We come through changed and view life from a new perspective, one that may be for the better or the worse.

I am a Netflix hoarder. My watch queue has 383 selections in it. Hope, shall I say, springs eternal. Granted, not all of the movies, documentaries and television shows waiting in line to be viewed are mine. Some belong to my husband, but nearly all of them are something I would like to watch if and when two uninterrupted hours of mind-numbing tedium ever beset me.

In order to lead a child down the paths we deem prudent and right requires we spend a lot of our time with them. And there is the rub. In a world where it takes a lion’s share of our day to just eeek out a living, where do we find the time to nurture and teach our children? Parents who care worry about things like this.